The 32-year-old Singaporean's waning purchasing power has pushed him to work nights and weekends to boost his pay, and he wants some relief from Singapore's wealthy but tightfisted government.
Cleaners such as Neshbahri are part of a working poor that often go unseen by tourists dazzled by the Southeast Asian city-state's sparkling downtown, Orchard Road shopping strip and two new casino resorts. But stagnant wages, weighed down by a flood of cheap foreign labor, are tearing at a social compact that has allowed the People's Action Party to govern Singapore almost unchallenged for five decades.
Singapore has a per capita income similar to Denmark, Finland, and Sweden yet in those Scandinavian countries cleaners are paid on average up to seven times more than in Singapore, according to a study by Tommy Koh, a Singapore Ambassador-at-Large and special adviser to the Institute of Policy Studies, a think tank.
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Related:
Singapore’s stagnant wages test ruling party’s hold on low income workers - The Washington Post
Low wages test loyalty to Singapore ruling party - Real Clear Politics
Singapore PM Lee’s reforms face test in today’s by-election - The Manila Times
